Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DISCONNECT (Digital Wellbeing in a Culture of Ubiquitous Connectivity: Towards a Dynamic Pathway Model)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-12-01 do 2024-05-31
Digital technology benefits human autonomy by facilitating social connection and interaction, and by giving access to content and services (often) anywhere anytime. Paradoxically, however, these benefits come with drawbacks: People spend more time online than they desire, have difficulty focusing because of digital distractions, and feel they must be ‘always on’. Digital well-being has emerged as a novel concept that captures how individuals balance these benefits and drawbacks.
To date, evidence on the short- and long-term effects of digital well-being experiences on human cognitions, emotions and behaviors is limited. We also know little about digital disconnection – the practice of setting explicit, frequent, and pronounced limits on digital connectivity, and whether and how it exerts a positive effect on people's well-being. The dearth of strong evidence is primarily due to a lack of theorization on digital well-being, in combination with suboptimal approaches to investigate these relations (e.g. not enough participants, relying exclusively on cross-sectional questionnaires, not including behavioral data).
The overall aim of DISCONNECT is to overcome these limitations by conducting high-quality research to advance understanding of the science behind digital well-being and disconnection. To that end, the project addresses three research objectives:
1. How do individuals understand and practice digital wellbeing and disconnection, and how are these phenomena communicated in the designs of technologies and the discourses surrounding them?
2. How do psychological, technological and social-contextual factors shape momentary experiences of digital wellbeing, and how do these in turn affect health and well-being?
3. What are the implications of digital disconnection for individuals and society?
To date, evidence on the short- and long-term effects of digital well-being experiences on human cognitions, emotions and behaviors is limited. We also know little about digital disconnection – the practice of setting explicit, frequent, and pronounced limits on digital connectivity, and whether and how it exerts a positive effect on people's well-being. The dearth of strong evidence is primarily due to a lack of theorization on digital well-being, in combination with suboptimal approaches to investigate these relations (e.g. not enough participants, relying exclusively on cross-sectional questionnaires, not including behavioral data).
The overall aim of DISCONNECT is to overcome these limitations by conducting high-quality research to advance understanding of the science behind digital well-being and disconnection. To that end, the project addresses three research objectives:
1. How do individuals understand and practice digital wellbeing and disconnection, and how are these phenomena communicated in the designs of technologies and the discourses surrounding them?
2. How do psychological, technological and social-contextual factors shape momentary experiences of digital wellbeing, and how do these in turn affect health and well-being?
3. What are the implications of digital disconnection for individuals and society?
The first work package (WP1; completed) analyzed digital disconnection interventions and discourse about them. WP1 resulted in three analyses that were published: We developed a framework revealing that interventions target three causes, namely (1) individual susceptibilities (media as drug metaphor), (2) technologies designed-for-attention (media as demon metaphor), and (3) poor context-fit (media as food metaphor). A second analysis identified six ‘digital harms’ (e.g. time displacement, interference) and found that current interventions are not specific enough to these harms. A third discourse analysis of products and services revealed that digital well-being is something that needs to be cared for. This care is an individual responsibility of which the burden is unevenly distributed in society.
For the second WP (ongoing) we repeatedly observed 16 adults in ‘22-23 to examine how they experience digital well-being and digital disconnection, and plan a new empirical cycle in 2024. Crucial to this study is that we perform ‘follow-along’ observations: We accompany our participants as they move through their everyday life, joining them in the early morning as they prepare themselves and their children for the day, going to work with them, and being present during their hobbies/social activities. Combined with both formal and informal interviews, this approach enables us to witness how digital well-being unfolds and manifests in everyday life. Our research shows that individuals experience unique social, material, and individual obstacles that both hinder and foster digital wellbeing. We coin the concept of ‘repressed agency’ to acknowledge how individual agency over dis/connection is constrained by gendered responsibilities and other (unequal) social relations. Several manuscripts are under review or in preparation.
In the third WP (ongoing) we collected intensive longitudinal data to test dynamic pathways between digital well-being experiences and health and well-being outcomes. This study, organized in the form of a citizen science project, collected survey data from over 1400 adults, who contributed over 67.000 experience sampling questionnaires and more than 7 million unique smartphone/computer use events. Findings reveal both short-and longer-term effects: For instance, we found that mindless scrolling on social media produces feelings of guilt that over time hinder affective well-being, and that feeling ‘always on’ has a fatiguing effect on individuals that lingers for up to 6-8 hours. As hypothesized, the strength of these associations depends on unique constellations of individual, technological, and socio-contextual factors. One article is published, and several more are in preparation, among others looking at the effects of disconnection.
We also published two articles on the state of the field, are preparing several methodological deliverables, and have extensively disseminated findings to academic and non-academic audiences. DISCONNECT is thus well on track to meet its objectives.
For the second WP (ongoing) we repeatedly observed 16 adults in ‘22-23 to examine how they experience digital well-being and digital disconnection, and plan a new empirical cycle in 2024. Crucial to this study is that we perform ‘follow-along’ observations: We accompany our participants as they move through their everyday life, joining them in the early morning as they prepare themselves and their children for the day, going to work with them, and being present during their hobbies/social activities. Combined with both formal and informal interviews, this approach enables us to witness how digital well-being unfolds and manifests in everyday life. Our research shows that individuals experience unique social, material, and individual obstacles that both hinder and foster digital wellbeing. We coin the concept of ‘repressed agency’ to acknowledge how individual agency over dis/connection is constrained by gendered responsibilities and other (unequal) social relations. Several manuscripts are under review or in preparation.
In the third WP (ongoing) we collected intensive longitudinal data to test dynamic pathways between digital well-being experiences and health and well-being outcomes. This study, organized in the form of a citizen science project, collected survey data from over 1400 adults, who contributed over 67.000 experience sampling questionnaires and more than 7 million unique smartphone/computer use events. Findings reveal both short-and longer-term effects: For instance, we found that mindless scrolling on social media produces feelings of guilt that over time hinder affective well-being, and that feeling ‘always on’ has a fatiguing effect on individuals that lingers for up to 6-8 hours. As hypothesized, the strength of these associations depends on unique constellations of individual, technological, and socio-contextual factors. One article is published, and several more are in preparation, among others looking at the effects of disconnection.
We also published two articles on the state of the field, are preparing several methodological deliverables, and have extensively disseminated findings to academic and non-academic audiences. DISCONNECT is thus well on track to meet its objectives.
DISCONNECT moves beyond the state-of-the-art by contributing significantly to theory formation, through the development and publication of novel theoretical frameworks (e.g. the drug-demon-donut framework), innovative concepts (e.g. repressed agency), and reflective articles on the state of the field (e.g. mapping current research approaches to digital disconnection). Through its many theoretical contributions, DISCONNECT significantly advances the field of research on digital well-being and digital disconnection, and impacts the future development of the field.
DISCONNECT’s ethnography distinguishes itself from other qualitative research in the field via its intensive, longitudinal and in-depth approach. Similarly, DISCONNECT is unique in the use of an intensive longitudinal measurement burst design that involves smartphone and laptop log data from adult individuals. With the collected data from both the ethnography and the intensive longitudinal data, we can answer questions that have not been addressed before, thus unraveling how the use of these devices, considered both separately and combined, shapes dynamic digital well-being experiences, affects the health and well-being of individuals, and impacts our society.
The novel and sophisticated methodologies tools for data collection and analysis developed in DISCONNECT contribute to the ongoing paradigm shift in the field of media effects research where greater consideration goes out to dynamic, within-person trends. Moreover, these methodologies themselves, most notably the 'going-along' observation method, the multi-device logging approach, and the development of automatized generation of personalized reports for participants (to incentivize participation and achieve high data quality) have the potential to stand alone as best-practice approaches to this form of scientific inquiry.
Finally, DISCONNECT innovates by bringing multiple disciplines together, allowing for a far-reaching and trans-disciplinary triangulation. Through this approach, the project succeeds in crystallizing a set of core observations visible across the different work packages: That subjective digital well-being experiences are more predictive of outcomes than observable media behaviors, that these experiences are characterized by ambivalences, that they arise out of the interplay between individual, technological and contextual factors, and that they shape and are shaped by broader societal logics and narratives.
DISCONNECT’s ethnography distinguishes itself from other qualitative research in the field via its intensive, longitudinal and in-depth approach. Similarly, DISCONNECT is unique in the use of an intensive longitudinal measurement burst design that involves smartphone and laptop log data from adult individuals. With the collected data from both the ethnography and the intensive longitudinal data, we can answer questions that have not been addressed before, thus unraveling how the use of these devices, considered both separately and combined, shapes dynamic digital well-being experiences, affects the health and well-being of individuals, and impacts our society.
The novel and sophisticated methodologies tools for data collection and analysis developed in DISCONNECT contribute to the ongoing paradigm shift in the field of media effects research where greater consideration goes out to dynamic, within-person trends. Moreover, these methodologies themselves, most notably the 'going-along' observation method, the multi-device logging approach, and the development of automatized generation of personalized reports for participants (to incentivize participation and achieve high data quality) have the potential to stand alone as best-practice approaches to this form of scientific inquiry.
Finally, DISCONNECT innovates by bringing multiple disciplines together, allowing for a far-reaching and trans-disciplinary triangulation. Through this approach, the project succeeds in crystallizing a set of core observations visible across the different work packages: That subjective digital well-being experiences are more predictive of outcomes than observable media behaviors, that these experiences are characterized by ambivalences, that they arise out of the interplay between individual, technological and contextual factors, and that they shape and are shaped by broader societal logics and narratives.